The California Public Utilities Commission heard nearly three hours of public testimony Thursday on its proposal to dramatically reduce the amount homeowners receive for sending excess solar power to the grid.

The plan has sparked a heated debate that now includes movie stars, a former NBA great, billionaire Elon Musk and Gov. Gavin Newsom. The CPUC is scheduled to vote on the plan Jan. 27.

At issue is the state’s net energy metering (NEM) framework, which pays homeowners full retail rates for electricity without requiring them to fund grid maintenance or pay interconnection fees. (See California PUC Proposes New Net Metering Plan.)

A CPUC proposed decision in December called for wholesale changes to net metering by imposing a new avoided-cost rate that would consider the value of behind-the-meter generation for resource adequacy and grid reliability, potentially slashing the reimbursement rate to less than half the original rate. It would also impose an interconnection fee that does not currently exist, averaging about $40/month.

The CPUC said the net metering rules in place since the 1990s unfairly require average ratepayers to compensate homeowners who can afford the upfront costs of rooftop solar arrays.

“Our review of the current net energy metering tariff … found that [it] negatively impacts nonparticipating customers, is not cost-effective and disproportionately harms low-income ratepayers,” CPUC Administrative Law Judge Kelly Hymes wrote.

About half the testimony Thursday came from the rooftop solar industry, homeowners with solar, and others who support their cause. They argued that altering net metering rules will decimate solar adoption and benefit the state’s large investor-owned utilities, which stand to profit from utility-scale solar.

“One of the most important policies that helped grow rooftop solar in California is NEM, and with the ongoing climate emergency it’s critical that we get buildings off gas and transition to a fossil fuel-free future,” Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin said as he urged the commission to reject the proposed decision.

The other half of the public comments came from residents who said their utility bills are too high because they subsidize rooftop solar, and from union workers who build utility-scale solar.

“I support the [proposed] decision,” Mark McCray, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, told the commissioners. “Rooftop solar costs six times more than utility-scale solar, and we simply cannot afford to overpay for a resource, especially now that we have a lot of wildfire costs. People are hurting financially from the COVID pandemic. The decision is what California needs for its clean energy future, so for more affordable electricity and for high quality jobs, please adopt the decision.”

The session was the first meeting with new CPUC President Alice Reynolds presiding. She replaced former President Marybel Batjer, who retired in December.

Martha Guzman Aceves, the lead commissioner in developing the proposed net metering decision, also left the CPUC late last year to head EPA’s Region 9.

With a new president and without Guzman Aceves, the fate of the net metering plan remains uncertain. Reynolds, a former energy adviser to Newsom, did not give any indication Thursday on whether she would support the proposal.

But on Monday, in a press conference announcing his 2022-23 budget plan, Newsom said he felt the NEM proposal needs more work. “Do I think changes need to be made? Yes, I do,” the governor said in response to a reporter’s question.

Celebrities also have entered the debate. Actors Edward Norton and Mark Ruffalo opined on Twitter that the CPUC’s plan was wrongheaded.

“Please don’t let new California net metering rules derail rooftop solar,” Ruffalo said on Twitter, addressing Newsom.

Norton posted a dozen times on Twitter about the proposal, saying “California utilities like PG&E want to maintain their monopoly and look for every opportunity to kill rooftop solar which liberates customers from their control.”

Tesla CEO Musk tweeted that the net metering proposal was a “bizarre anti-environment move” by the California government.

And former NBA star and commentator Bill Walton wrote an open letter to Newsom urging him to “do the right thing … and send this disastrous CPUC ‘solution’ back to the beginning.”

None of the celebrities offered public testimony at Thursday’s CPUC meeting.